Where?

• I am on Pelee Island. 1.5 hours ferry on Lake Erie. Living in a wood cabin. Tiny wood burner. Next to the lake. Dark skies.  Bike. Ride to a nearby campsite' scalding hot sensational showers.

• Saturday.  Rode the 30K around the island. 

• Sunday. Indigenous theatre in a quarry. Spirit canoes made of linen. I feel changed. 

• But Friday was special. 12-words workshop. Outside. 2, oversized picnic tables.

Who?

• The psychologist who has brought me to Sky and Stone Festival as PHD research. A collaboration between Write the Power and Salford University.

  .

• A retired aerospace engineer.

• A retired cellist.

• A young, Guinea poet.

• A young, Pelee Islander with ancestral roots.

• Sky and Stone Festival’s 2nd-in-command.

• A Canadian who spent her 1st 14 years with indigenous and Inuits in the Artic Circle.

• Me.

• A mixed-race Indigenous published writer.  Every other indigenous I meet is mixed-race. 

• His beloved wife.

• A retired librarian/teacher.

What?

• Title. What Makes Me Happy?

• Tell me the first thing you think of. I forget to say it has to be an object.

• They answer around the tables that are now one giant table.

• Subtitle. What is The Purpose of My Life?

You must use the title. Your object. The 12 associations. Your subtitle. You have 15 minutes to write. They all get straight to it. Writing. Writing. Writing. Writing. Their stories are not for me to tell. Beautiful pieces. Bigger than the sum of their parts. Buoyant.

Repeat

Do you want to do it again? Their beaming. We are a tribe. A shoal. A flock. A murmuration.

• Title. The Most Perfect Moment in My Life.

• This time I remember to say it must be an object you can touch.

• 12 associations.

• Subtitle. What Will Be My Last Thoughts on My Deathbed.

Result

Crystal clear. Each story talks to the one before. The young Pelee Islander, Sky and Stone’s 2nd in command, and Artic Circle sat side-by-side each chose a stone.

One takes us from a pebble to the universe. One crushes us in our strata. One polishes hers. 

Type them. Send them to me. I will use them as case studies in my book.